SUMMARY: currently zooming has several bugs and when changing between infantry and helicopters one discovers several conflicts and control inconsistencies. I will introduce you to the issues, state how they should work, define the issues and suggest an effective solution!

Introduction:
The "Optics" command is bound to RMB Click and the “Lock and zoom” command is bound to Hold RMB.
As INFANTRY RMB Click toggles sights and Hold RMB zooms in.
As AT INFANTRY RMB Click toggles sights and locks on simultaneously and Hold RMB zooms in and locks on simultaneously.
As HELICOPTER RMB Click toggles zoom in and locks on simultaneously and Hold RMB locks on.
3 different situations where pressing the same buttons work differently in every situation!

Objectives:

1. INFANTRY RMB Click should toggle sights and Hold RMB should zoom in. Already works OK!
2. AT INFANTRY RMB Click should toggle sights and do nothing else. Doesn’t work! Hold RMB should both zoom in and lock on simultaneously. Already works OK!
3. HELICOPTER RMB Click should lock on and do nothing else. Doesn’t work! Hold RMB should zoom in (temporarily) and do nothing else. Doesn’t work!

*Why?* All this serves to erase some inconsistencies and increase accessibility. INFANTRY already work OK. AT INFANTRY should as currently not toggle sights and lock on simultaneously because it is not practical and probably won’t be intentionally used and thus will only cause accidental lock-ons. HELICOPTERS don’t have optics and because of this have one extra button and thus locking and zooming can be split into two commands and be put on two different buttons so one can be done without the other and both are more accessible and intuitive instead of one button doing both as it is currently.

*Note:* You may skip to SUMMARY OF STEPS TO SOLUTION and CONCLUSION now. The next section contains a big lot of examining and reasoning.

Issue 1) The “Optics” bug:
Currently RMB Click doesn’t zoom as INFANTRY. Hold RMB zooms. But as HELICOPTER RMB Click zooms and Hold RMB doesn’t zoom which is the opposite. Only considering zooming it is naturally counter-intuitive that INFANTRY and HELICOPTER zooming works exactly opposite. We can remedy this quite easily however.
Apparent solution to Issue 1):
Disable the “Optics” command while in a HELICOPTER. Now it won’t be possible to zoom in at all but we will remedy this too in time, naturally!

Issue 2) The “Lock and zoom” bug:
As mentioned above RMB Click locks on both as AT INFANTRY and HELICOPTER even when the “Lock and zoom” command is bound to Hold RMB. This is obviously buggy and should be remedied.
Apparent solution to Issue 2):
Make “Lock and zoom” bound to Hold RMB only lock on when it is held.

*Intermission:* Now AT INFANTRY works OK. However in HELICOPTERS RMB Click does nothing and Hold RMB locks on while we want RMB Click to lock on and Hold RMB to zoom in temporarily.

Apparent solution: disable “Lock and zoom” command while in HELICOPTERS.

*Note:* now we can’t do anything at all with RMB Click or Hold RMB in HELICOPTERS.

Apparent solution: now we add two new commands for “Lock on” and “Zoom in” in HELICOPTERS.

*Note:* However, however! There is already a “Zoom in” command, right? So the above is not a good solution! Wait… why isn’t the “Zoom in” command used to actually zoom in universally? Because it is bugged which brings us to:

Issue 3) The “Zoom in” bug
Binding “Optics” to RMB Click and “Zoom in” to Hold RMB instead of “Lock and Zoom” and trying to aim down the sights then zooming causes the zoom to get stuck in zoomed in mode.

Solution to Issue 3)
Simply make “Zoom in” bound to Hold RMB while using optics not stick like it currently does.

And at last:
Having mended the “Zoom in” command what new possibilities do we have available at our disposal? “Lock and zoom” should be removed from the game entirely! It is an abomination. Zooming should universally (as INFANTRY or in any vehicle that allows zooming) be done by using Hold RMB bound to the “Zoom in” command and there should be two new and separate “Lock on” commands available for INFANTRY and for HELICOPTERS respectively. Did you get all that?

SUMMARY OF STEPS TO SOLUTION:

1. Disable the “Optics” command in HELICOPTERS.
2. Remove “Lock and zoom” from the game.
3. Solve “Zoom in” bug.
4. Make “Zoom in” the default zooming method (Hold RMB.)
5. Add new “Lock on” command for INFANTRY.
6. Add new “Lock on” command for HELICOPTERS.
7. Bind “Lock on” commands to Hold RMB for infantry, Click RMB for helicopters by default.
8. Make sure both “Lock on” commands only lock on when really held if bound to holding a mouse button.
9. Playtest tons.

CONCLUSION:
By doing these probably not too difficult steps we can finally stomp out inconsistencies like “Zoom in” not being used to zoom in and helicopters zooming in the opposite way of infantry. We will also split locking and zooming apart onto two buttons in the helicopter for easier access which also makes it even more intuitive. We can also hopefully prevent some accidental lock-ons. All of this without causing any new issues and saying true to our original objectives. Thanks for reading, phew.